Much like a startup itself, when the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy started at USC four years ago, it had to be scrappy.

It took a part of a fourth floor in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center in the middle of campus. A couple of classrooms — dubbed “the garage” — served as the hub for its first group of 30 students. It made use of every bit of space, converting conference rooms to classrooms, but the academy outgrew that space as the student body tripled.

Now that’s changing. On Wednesday, academy founders Andre Young (aka Dr. Dre) and Jimmy Iovine donned hard hats and dug into fresh soil to kick off construction on the academy’s first building: Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Hall.

“It will stoke the fire of students’ imaginations, and it will propel the next generations of inventions and products that will transform our lives,” USC President C. L. Max Nikias said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

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